LEAD STORY
The oversupply situation in liquefied natural gas markets that emerged in 2015 is worsening in 2016 and will not substantially improve until 2019 at the earliest, according to the latest analysis by the International Energy Agency.
Also in this issue
The first LNG transaction by these international traders goes back eight years, when Switzerland-based Vitol, the world’s largest independent oil trader, entered the LNG business.
The LNG shipping fleet is presently characterized by oversupply. At the end of 2015, the cargo capacity of the fleet was 7.1 percent higher than at the start of that year, greatly exceeding the 0.5 percent growth in the world’s LNG imports.
The European gas price has recently fallen around 25 percent to as low as $4.10 per million British thermal units in the last year, a downward trend caused by several factors.
Shale-gas development in China is likely to influence LNG imports but such an impact is limited at present and will then build up only gradually.
